Teen pleads in convenience store robbery

Posted: Tuesday, July 19, 2005

By Joe Johnsonjoe.johnson@onlineathens.com

A Bogart teen once thought involved in stealing guns from Athens-Clarke Police Chief Jack Lumpkin's house pleaded guilty Monday in Clarke County Superior Court to charges he robbed $180 from a north Athens convenience store.

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As part of a plea bargain, Tadarius Donte Cooper, 19, of 175 Sartain Circle, originally charged with armed robbery, pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of robbery by intimidation for the March 1, 2004, robbery of a Golden Pantry on Jefferson Road.

The plea agreement allowed Cooper to avoid a possible 10-year prison sentence, and instead he was sentenced to 10 years of probation, according to his defense attorney, Dean Clark.

"This is a positive outcome for all sides, as it gives the state a chance to supervise Tadarius while allowing (him) a chance to get on with his life," Clark said.

Cooper's co-defendant, 19-year-old Henry Darnell Hatten, has pleaded not guilty to armed robbery charges for the Golden Pantry hold-up, but a trial date hasn't been set.

The negotiated plea doesn't require Copper to testify against Hatten, according to Clark.

Although the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found that neither Cooper nor Hatten played a role in stealing two pistols from Lumpkin's house, one of the guns was found in a car occupied by both teens when they were stopped last fall for a traffic violation in Dublin, according to Clark. Cooper and Hatten still face firearms charges in Laurens County Superior Court as a result of that incident.

While preparing Cooper's case for trial, Clark said he learned that a juvenile relative of the police chief gave the guns to her boyfriend, Darius Pittard, then a 17-year-old Bogart resident, who prosecutors later declined to prosecute.

Athens-Clarke police initially thought one or both of Lumpkin's handguns might have been used in a string of armed robberies between December 2003 and May 2004, including the Golden Pantry hold-up, but the GBI concluded neither weapon was used to commit a crime.

One of the guns, the police chief's county-issued .357-caliber revolver, was found in Pittard's possession in March 2004 when the sport-utility vehicle he was in was stopped and searched in the Stonehenge subdivision of Bogart, off Atlanta Highway.

The chief's relative was charged with theft by taking in Athens-Clarke County Juvenile Court.

Cooper had been named by witnesses as a participant in other area armed robberies, but he was never charged, Clark said.

According to court records, Hatten, of 1645 E. Broad St., faces trial for two other alleged armed robberies, one on Dec. 31, 2003, and the other on May 25, 2004.